Judge asked to lift ban on rebel banner

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge was asked Thursday to temporarily lift a ban on the Confederate battle flag at a high school where students are suing to wear it as a symbol of Southern pride.

Students Derek Barr, Chris Nicole White and Roger Craig White and their parents have taken the Blount County school system to court claiming their free speech rights are being denied by the ban on the Confederate symbol at mostly white, William Blount High School.

School officials defend their dress code policy as a nonspecific ban against any clothing containing graphics, words or pictures that could be "distracting to the learning process."

U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan heard arguments Thursday from four lawyers for the county and two for the plaintiffs on whether to lift the ban pending a full trial.

"I will take this under advisement," Varlan said after a half-hour hearing, saying he would issue a decision "in due course" and refused to "give a timeline."

The Black Mountain, N.C.-based Southern Legal Resource Center and the Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are supporting the lawsuit against school principal Steve Lafon, Schools Director Alvin Hord and the Blount County School Board.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Van Irion of Knoxville said the school system should be required to prove that the presence of Confederate flag symbols leads to disruptions in school.

Of 400 dress code violations at the school in the past year, only 23 involved the Confederate banner and none involved disorderly behavior, he said.

But school attorney Rob Goddard said that was only because school officials moved so quickly to collect them.

The 1,750-student high school is nearly 90 percent white and has a "history of racially motivated violence," Goddard said. The school was put into lockdown by sheriff's deputies last year after racial tensions flared. That led to increased enforcement of the dress code.